Golding in the groove
Mike Golding appears to be sailing "in the groove" on Ecover III just now, breaking French dominance in the top 10 and shifting in to sixth place, his highest position since the start of the Vendee.
As the race goes in to its third week, it is still relatively tight with less than a hundred miles between the first and ninth boats.
The need for continuous checking and maintenance was underlined today when Jeremie Beyou was forced to head off towards Brazil for an unassisted pit stop in order to fix some damaged spreaders.
The top half of the order is divided in to two distinct packs now, with the top nine moving a hundred miles clear of Wavre, Guillemot, Thompson and Davies. If Golding can maintain his consistent 12+ knots progress he will soon be up among the leading boats within 50 miles of pace setter Loick Peyron.
If the race has demonstrated anything so far, it is the excellence of the single-handed French Figaro racing where the leading sailors have all cut their competitive teeth. The message for other nationalities has to be, either get in to Figaro racing, start a similar series elsewhere, or get used to the best French sailors setting the pace.
Of course fortunes will change as boats begin to suffer damage. Few, if any, of these competitors can expect to achieve a problem free rounding. The winner will be the one who can race consistently fast while keeping problems to a minimum.
Both Golding and Thompson among the British sailors have the quality to threaten although Thompson has been struggling with a sail repair. Sam Davies is sailing well too but her less powerful boat was always going to lack the speed of the leaders.
If Golding can keep his boat together - and that's a big if that applies to all the skippers - he could get in to contention for the latter half of the race. If Brian Thompson can keep his sails together and begin to exploit Bahrain Team Pindar's power advantage, he too could soon see himself in the top 10 but he must start to make an impression on the leaders soon. The reality is today he is 224 miles behind the leading boat after closing the gap to just over 180 miles last week.
Even more disappointing is the performance of Jonny Malbon on Artemis. This is a well funded boat, purpose built for the race, yet he has fallen 610 miles behind the leader in 20th place, trailing behind Steve White who had to scratch around for funding in a relatively old boat.
Much of the fleet must have passed Pete Goss in his Cornish Lugger on the Equator yesterday although Goss makes no mention in his blog.
.
As the race goes in to its third week, it is still relatively tight with less than a hundred miles between the first and ninth boats.
The need for continuous checking and maintenance was underlined today when Jeremie Beyou was forced to head off towards Brazil for an unassisted pit stop in order to fix some damaged spreaders.
The top half of the order is divided in to two distinct packs now, with the top nine moving a hundred miles clear of Wavre, Guillemot, Thompson and Davies. If Golding can maintain his consistent 12+ knots progress he will soon be up among the leading boats within 50 miles of pace setter Loick Peyron.
If the race has demonstrated anything so far, it is the excellence of the single-handed French Figaro racing where the leading sailors have all cut their competitive teeth. The message for other nationalities has to be, either get in to Figaro racing, start a similar series elsewhere, or get used to the best French sailors setting the pace.
Of course fortunes will change as boats begin to suffer damage. Few, if any, of these competitors can expect to achieve a problem free rounding. The winner will be the one who can race consistently fast while keeping problems to a minimum.
Both Golding and Thompson among the British sailors have the quality to threaten although Thompson has been struggling with a sail repair. Sam Davies is sailing well too but her less powerful boat was always going to lack the speed of the leaders.
If Golding can keep his boat together - and that's a big if that applies to all the skippers - he could get in to contention for the latter half of the race. If Brian Thompson can keep his sails together and begin to exploit Bahrain Team Pindar's power advantage, he too could soon see himself in the top 10 but he must start to make an impression on the leaders soon. The reality is today he is 224 miles behind the leading boat after closing the gap to just over 180 miles last week.
Even more disappointing is the performance of Jonny Malbon on Artemis. This is a well funded boat, purpose built for the race, yet he has fallen 610 miles behind the leader in 20th place, trailing behind Steve White who had to scratch around for funding in a relatively old boat.
Much of the fleet must have passed Pete Goss in his Cornish Lugger on the Equator yesterday although Goss makes no mention in his blog.
.
Labels: Bahrain team Pindar, Brian Thompson, Ecover III, Jeremie Beyou, Jonny Malbon, Mike Golding, Pete Goss, Vendee Globe
posted by Richard Donkin at
4:52 PM
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